Job summary
- Main area
- Intermediate Local Services - ICS/ICL
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 5
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week (09:00-17:00)
- Job ref
- 196-COF10798-Y
- Employer
- Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Queens Road Peckham (London Borough Southwark Council Offices)
- Town
- Southwark
- Salary
- £35,964 - £43,780 pa inc HCA (pro rata)
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 16/07/2025 23:59
- Interview date
- 31/07/2025
Employer heading
Assistant Service Manager
NHS AfC: Band 5
Guy’s and St Thomas’ is among the UK’s busiest and most successful NHS foundation trusts. We provide a full range of hospital and community services for people in south London and as well as specialist care for patients from further afield including cancer, renal, orthopaedic, respiratory and cardiovascular services.
Guy’s is home to the largest dental school in Europe and a £160 million Cancer Centre opened in 2016. As part of our commitment to provide care closer to home, in 2017 we also opened a cancer centre and a kidney treatment centre at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup. St Thomas’ has one of the largest critical care units in the UK and one of the busiest emergency departments in London. It is also home to Evelina London Children’s Hospital.
Evelina London cares for local children in Lambeth and Southwark and provides specialist services across south east England including cardiac, renal and critical care services. We lead a number of specialist service networks aiming to ensure children are treated locally where possible, but have access to specialist expertise when they need it. Our community services include health visiting, school nursing and support for families of children with long-term conditions.
Our adult community services teams deliver care at the heart of the local communities we serve, working in partnership with GPs, local authorities and other healthcare and voluntary sector organisations. Working with our partners in Lambeth and Southwark, we are focusing on new ways of working to improve care for local patients.
In February 2021 the Royal Brompton and Harefield joined Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, bringing together world-leading expertise in the care and research of heart and lung disease. Our merger provides a once in a generation opportunity to build a lasting, world-renowned heart and lung centre, providing the highest quality care for patients and conducting world-leading research.
We have a reputation for clinical excellence and high quality teaching and research. We are part of King’s Health Partners, one of eight accredited UK academic health sciences centres. In partnership with King’s College London we have dedicated clinical research facilities including an MHRA accredited Phase I clinical trials unit.
Patients are at the heart of everything we do and we pride ourselves on ensuring the best possible patient experience as well as safe, high quality care. We are proud to have one of the lowest mortality rates in the NHS. Following a comprehensive Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in 2019 we maintained our overall rating of ‘good’. Our adult community services achieved a rating of ‘outstanding’.
The commitment of our 23,500 staff is key to our success. We are one of the largest local employers and we aim to develop and support all our staff so they are able to deliver high quality, safe and efficient care. The 2019 NHS staff survey results show that we have one of the most engaged and motivated workforces in the NHS. We know this has a positive impact on the care provided to our patients.
We have one of the most ambitious capital investment programmes anywhere in the NHS.
Job overview
An exciting opportunity has arisen within the Intermediate Care Services - Southwark/Lambeth for a full- time Assistant Service Manager on a permanent contract in intermediate Local Services.
This is an exciting and challenging role within a busy directorate, in which the post holder would have an opportunity to make a direct positive impact on patient experience within the Trust.
The post holder will be responsible for supporting our Service Manager in the daily operational delivery of the service as well as interacting with patients, consultants, external stakeholders and healthcare referrers. This role is a full time role, 37.5 hours per week and will have a focus on teamwork and being able to manage others.
The successful candidate must be proactive in their approach, with good problem solving abilities and flexible, can do approach to resolve issues within the outpatient areas. Similarly, this would be perfect for an applicant who already has significant ASM experience, and is looking for a new challenge.
Main duties of the job
The duties and responsibilities of this role including supporting the Service Manager in managing the day-to-day operations of the service, ensuring effective service delivery and monitoring of key performance indicators.
The role will also have managerial responsibility of the administrative team, as well as involvement in upcoming projects within the directorate.
The successful candidate will work closely with the admin team, service management and clinical teams to ensure the smooth running of the service. They will therefore be an excellent communicator, with the ability to develop strong working relationships.
Working for our organisation
Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust comprises five of the UK’s best known hospitals – Guy’s, St Thomas’, Evelina London Children’s Hospital, Royal Brompton and Harefield – as well as community services in Lambeth and Southwark, all with a long history of high quality care, clinical excellence, research and innovation.
We are among the UK’s busiest, most successful foundation trusts. We provide specialist care for patients including heart and lung, cancer and renal services as well as a full range of local hospital and community services for people in Lambeth and Southwark.
Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals joined Guy’s and St Thomas’ in February 2021 and is the largest specialist heart and lung centre in the UK and among the largest in Europe. We provide treatment for people with heart and lung disease, including rare and complex conditions, offering some of the most sophisticated treatment that is available anywhere in the world. Our integrated approach to caring for patients from before birth, through childhood, adolescence and into adulthood and old age has been replicated around the world and has gained Royal Brompton and Harefield an international reputation as a leader in heart and lung diagnosis, treatment and research.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
The duties and responsibilities listed below are representative of the Assistant Service Manager role and its purpose within the service; they are not exhaustive and the post holder may be required to undertake additional or alternative administrative or managerial duties and responsibilities commensurate with the level of the post, to support the smooth running of the service.
Operational Management
- Support the Service Manager in managing various sections of service, e.g., bookings Patient's Home Visit. This will require working autonomously to understand and drive operating targets, budget controls, and relevant HR management.
- Ensure effective processes and procedures are in place to monitor and track performance against agreed targets within the service that may be performance related.
- Problem-solve all day-to-day management issues organising and reallocating work where situations change due to variations to the work load and staffing availability.
- Exercise delegated authority on behalf of the consultants and clinical leads to resolve day-to-day management issues within the service.
- Manage the analysis of data so consultants and registrars have access to timely and accurate information on all key performance indicators.
- Plan and organise the Admin service ( Patient Pathway Coordinators - hub and Flow and Business Support Admin ) within the department, setting the goals of the service in order to fit in with the demands of the Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, Nurses, Rehab Support Workers rota in line with Demand and capacity.
Policy Development and System Management
- Develop and write policies and procedures within own work area.
- Manage the implementation and overall management of office systems, control processes and risk management arrangements to ensure effective delivery of service.
- Responsible for the design and implementation of audits in collaboration with Heads of Service.
- To investigate complaints, as delegated by the Service Delivery Manager, in line with Trust Policy. This may involve handling sensitive interpersonal situation.
- To contribute to the modernisation of patient services delivered by the Admin.
- Sit on departmental working groups to contribute to future strategies and development
Financial Management
- Authorised signatory.
- Manage and monitor performance of the administrative support to ensure that the service meets its financial and operating targets.
- Manage a delegated no-pay budget within the service ensuring that expenditure is within agreed limits and that the Clinical Lead/consultants remains informed of related issues. This would include signatory responsibility for requisition and authorising signature for ordering, up to the amount of £500.
Staff Management
- Day-to-day managerial responsibility for all administration staff within the Outpatient services or others as agreed.
- Set objectives and review performance of service staff, identifying individual training and development needs and promote continued personal and professional development.
- Manage annual leave, sickness, disciplinary and performance issues in line with Trust policies and the effective delivery of service.
- Ensure all staff comply with relevant Trust policies and standing financial instructions.
- Recruit and induct A&C staff in line with Trust policies and procedures.
- Anticipate staff shortages and problem areas and take action to minimise the impact of these on service delivery.
- Support conflict resolution from patients, staff, suppliers, other internal and external service providers and partner organisations in the service.
- Ensure that all staff adhere to the appropriate legislation when dealing with patient material and that suitable filing & booking systems are effectively managed.
- Support the monitoring of compliance with internal and external governance and best practice requirements with the medical services.
Communication
- Effectively communicate with a multi-disciplinary group of people, demonstrating interpersonal skills when dealing with all levels of staff across the Trust, using persuasion, tact and reassurance where necessary.
- Liaise with other departments and members of the Trust to ensure the smooth running of the office and to assisting the functioning of the team.
- Influence, motivate and involve individuals and teams within the service to achieve necessary performance targets.
- Deal with telephone calls related to the service, ensuring that customers are communicated with in a sensitive and effective manner and problems are dealt with promptly and efficiently.
- Handle confidential patient information and material in a sensitive and discrete fashion, in compliance with Trust policy and procedure.
Person specification
Experience
Essential criteria
- Significant experience of staff supervision/ staff management including recruitment/ retention /appraisal /first line disciplinary and knowledge of budget management issues
- Have significantly contributed to meeting operational objectives
Desirable criteria
- Have significantly contributed to meeting strategic objectives
- Experience of delivering services on a multi-site basis
Skills
Essential criteria
- Leadership and influencing skills
- Excellent interpersonal, presentation and written communication skills
- Ability to respond to changing demands
Desirable criteria
- Financial management and analysis skills
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Educated to HNC/Equivalent Diploma/equivalent experience
- GCSE Maths & English
- Track record of significant continuous professional and management development
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Hellen Dzokoto
- Job title
- Service Manager
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Additional information
Please email following successful shortlisting, for any information you will like about this role.
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